Programme Two
On air September 11
1.
Nick Cave - "Nature Boy"
(from "Abattoir Blues"/"The Lyre Of Orpheus") (EMI) (Due 20
Sept)
Suitably cheery titles for the forthcoming double album set from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (due out on September 20). It's his 13th studio recording - and his first since "Nocturama" last year. But in spite of those titles this is a rather majestic love song (but as only Nick Cave can write a love song). Then again one of his songs is on the "Shrek 2" soundtrack so he should never ever be taken for granted..
http://www.nickcaveandthebadseeds.com
2.
David Kilgour - "Living in Space" (NZ)
(from "Frozen Orange") (Arch Hill/FMR)
David Kilgour was a founding member of Dunedin's legendary Clean back in 1978 (along with brother Hamish who now lives in New York). The Clean still record and tour occasionally (with third member Robert Scott who is also in the Bats); but David also has a solo career. "Frozen Orange" is his fifth album and it was largely written and recorded in Nashville.
The footage in the video is from a forthcoming documentary that Bridget Sutherland has been making with David about his music. It will feature him recording in Nashville and touring in the United States. The documentary should be released next year.
More about "Frozen Orange" here -
http://www.fmrecords.co.nz/viewartist.cfm?ArtistId=574
3.
Bjork - "Oceania"
(from "Medulla") (Universal)
The return of Bjork with a stunning video (just for a change). The album is largly a cappella (there are a few beats and textures) because she thought her songs were getting in the arrangements on her previous discs.
"The only rule" according to her press release "was for it not to sound like Manhatten Transfer or Bobby McFerrin".
But even a largely vocal recording isn't straightforward. This one required 18 different locations including New York, Iceland, The Canary Islands and Venice.
Bjork's
website is at
http://www.bjork.com
4.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Maps"
(from "Fever To Tell") (Universal)
A fabulous song and a great video. It's one of the stand out tracks from their debut - and about as gentle as they get. Karen O wrote the song about missing her boyfriend while he was away touring with his band. He was back in time for the video shoot and standing behind the cameras which prompted her teariness.
However, that relationship is over now - and she's been spending time with director Spike Jonze. Jonze has just directed the latest Yeah Yeah Yeahs video - for "Y Control" - it's a rather disturbing clip that may not get a lot of airtime on broadcast television. You can see it here -
http://umusic.ca/yeahyeahyeahs/index.php#media
In other "Maps" news - the White Stripes covered the song at the Reading Festival but no-one seems to have recorded this indie marriage made in heaven. Even the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are asking for a copy through their website.
5.
Libertines - "Can't Stand Me Now"
(from "The Libertines") (Universal)
There
isn't enough space here to even begin to document the real life
adventures of the Libertines - but this is a band who have been all
but destroyed by singer/guitarist Pete Doherty's ongoing struggles
with the legal system, drugs and detox. The saga up until June is
quite nicely summarised in their record company press release that
begins - "Everything that follows is true. Obviously. No one would
believe it if it were made up." You can read it here -
http://roughtrade.status9.com/libertines_history.htm
But in the midst of this chaos the band made their second album - which includes some of the bluntest lyrics ever recorded by a band about itself. Mick Jones (from the Clash) produced this one as well (appropriately for a band that takes a lot of it's musical cue from late seventies/early eighties post punk).
Where to from here? Who knows - but at the moment Doherty is out and the band are touring without him - and he's off making music with singer Dot Allison and his own project Baby Shambles (and he's escaped prison on the concealed weapons charge).
6.
Modest Mouse - "Float On"
(from "Good News For People Who Love Bad News")
(Sony)
Fourth album - and a commercial breakthrough for the somewhat eccentric Modest Mouse who've been plugging away for 10 years now. Vocalist and main songwriter Isaac Brock had his fair share of problems leading up to the making of this disc according to a very detailed interview on the Onion site - "his jaw broken by a stranger, upset fans by licensing songs for commercials, lost his longtime drummer, started and scrapped a new album, and spent a week and a half in jail for attempted murder". The full interview is at
http://www.theonionavclub.com/feature/index.php?issue=4014&f=1
7.
Ratatat - "Germany to Germany"
(from "Ratatat") (Shock)
Two men
(Evan Mast and Mike Stroud) and their guitars from New York - with
a synthesiser but no drums - or vocals. Forty years ago they would
have been hanging out with Link Wray and making music for riding in
hotrods to - but in 2004 they're somewhere at the crossroads
between rock'n'roll and electronica. The album is entirely
instrumental and it's their first.
They have a website - but it has only marginally more words that
their music. Find it at -
http://www.audiodregs.com/ratatat
8.
Rhian Sheehan (feauring Jess Chambers) - "Sunshine" (NZ)
(from "Tiny Blue Biosphere") (Loop)
A very good looking video composed of 6000 stills shot on a Nikon professional digital stlls camera - and played in at differing speeds to the beat of the music to quite stunning effect. Rhian Sheehan makes a cameo appearance as does flautist Kirsten Johnstone. The locations are Upper Hutt's Kaitoke Regional Park, Castlepoint in the Wairarapa and the Desert Road in Tongariro National Park.
More about Rhian Sheehan at -
http://www.loop.co.nz/images/Rhian_TBB_PR.pdf
9.
Baitercell vs Timmy Schumacher - "What's Down Low" (NZ)
(12" single) (Kog)
A serious drum and bass hit from the Kog label (Baitercell is Chris Chetland from Kog) with a great vocal from Bextasy. "What's Down Low" was released as a 12" by British label Passenger - and t was the top selling breaks single in February on the Breaks FM World sales Chart.
A new Baitercell vs Schumacher track (with Bextasy) should be with us in Nvember
Read an Australian interview with Timmy Schumacher here -
http://www.residentadvisor.net/feature_view.asp?id=365
10. Stephen Malkmus - "Death and the Maiden"
(from "Under The Influence") (Flying Nun/FMR)
American indie musicians have always been vocal in their admiration for their NZ counterparts. Stephen Malkmus was the mainstay of indie superstars (if that isn't a contradiction in terms) Pavement - and "Death and the Maiden" was the first Verlaines single back in 1981 - and a Flying Nun classic.
This version was recorded for "Under The Influence" - a Flying Nun 21st birthday project where its artists recorded one song of their own - and one by another Flying Nun act.
Verlaines mainstay Graeme Downes plays on this version with Malkmus - and the video can be found on Very Short Films - a DVD compilation of 41 Flying Nun videos that was released earlier this year. Volume 2 is in the planning stages.
More about "Under the Influence" (including comments from Malkmus about "Death and the Maiden" here-
http://www.flyingnun.co.nz/viewartist.cfm?artistid=362
More about the "Very Short Films" DVD here -
http://www.flyingnun.co.nz/viewartist.cfm?artistid=539
There's a very good Verlaines site here -
http://www.grimalco.com/verlaines/index.html
And the Matador Records site is a good starting place for Pavement info -
http://www.matadorrecords.com/pavement/index.html
Meanwhile
Stephen Malkmus now has his own band - the Jicks - and his own
pages at Matador
http://www.matadorrecords.com/stephen_malkmus/
11. Joe Strummer - "Redemption Song"
(from "Streetcore") (Shock)
The ties between English punk and Jamaican reggae go all the way back to 1976. The Clash were one of the first punk groups to cover a reggae song (with "Police and Thieves" on their debut) and Bob Marley wrote "Punky Reggae Party' in 1977.
Two and a half decades later Marley's "Redemption Song" was one of the last tracks that Joe Strummer recorded before his untimely death in 2002. The track appears on the ??? album that was finished by Strummer's band; and this video was filmed in New York last November.
The mural is being painted on the side of Niagara - a bar in Manhattan owned by musician Jesse Malin (who has recorded the Clash's "Death Or Glory").
There are cameos in the video from Malin, director Jim Jarmusch and actor Steve Buscemi. Strummer and Buscemi acted in Jarmusch's "Mystery Train"
More about "Mystery Train" here -
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0097940/
And about the "Redemption Song video here -
http://www.angloplugging.co.uk/viewPressRelease.cfm?pressReleaseID=637
And here -
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1480457/20031117/strummer_joe.jhtml?headlines=true
